Rescues rewarding for crew members

IT WAS a big year for RACQ-CQ Rescue last year. The service changed contractors and was sent to 461 tasks.

Mark Donovan started in July with new contractor Australian Helicopters.

The air crewman and base manager, who was previously based in the Solomon Islands, said attending road traffic accidents and water rescues were some of the most rewarding parts of the job.

"It's a far more challenging environment going out over the ocean," he said.

Crew members are well trained but often put their lives on the line during rescues.

Mr Donovan said a job on December 24, in which they rescued a 10-year-old boy who had hydrogen peroxide splashed in his eye on a fishing trip, stood out.

"Another interesting dimension to this one is there were sharks surrounding the boat, which was a new experience for me," he said. "We had to put our rescue crewman in the water to get him across, to get the little boy.

"At one stage we spotted eight sharks and one of them was about three metres long."

The crew recently received a thank-you card from the boy's family for their efforts during the rescue.

"There's a lot of challenges that people off the street probably don't realise we go through," Mr Donovan said.

"Especially when we fly over water and at night."

Last year 50% of tasks were hospital transfers, 25% were primary tasks (where the chopper lands directly at the scene of a crash), horse falls or snake bites and such, 25% were vehicle crashes and 10% were search-and-rescue tasks.